Large touring motorcycles such as the Harley Davidson FLH TC 1340 cc which weigh over 800 pounds can be difficult to both balance when the bike is standing still, moving forward or backward and especially through turns. Many attempts have been made over the years that try to hold a motorcycle upright and allow the pleasure of balancing the bike during a ride.
The inventor of the subject invention created "retractable motorcycle stop-support wheels" which limited operation of motorcycle side wheels to be either an up mode or a down mode. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,894 to Willman, which is incorporated by reference. The up mode has the side wheels in a permanent lock up position raised above ground level. The down mode has the side wheels in a permanent lock down position with both wheels abuting against the ground. This system was beneficial for allowing the cyclist to have upright stability of the motorcycle in stop-and-start traffic, for parking and for handling the motorcycle when it was not being ridden. However, each of the side wheels in the Willman '894 patent were not intended to be flexible to bend upward to follow the uneven road surface contours while the motorcycle is travelling. Furthermore, the Willman device was not meant to be used in a down position mode when the motorcycle was travelling during turns when the motorcycle is typically tilted and the downward positioned sidewheels would be flexible to follow the contours of the road.
Other lockup and lockdown stabilizer wheels have been proposed but also fail to be useful for allowing the side wheels to be used when the motorcycle is travelling and especially being used over rough uneven road contours nor being useful during turns when the motorcycle is traditionally tilted. See U.S. Pat. No.: 3,397,898 to Denney; U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,009 to Ashworth; U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,756 to Kitner; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,194 to Sakita These prior art devices would also be hazardous when used in a lock down fixed position during traveling and/or going through turns since the cyclist could lose control causing injury and damage to both the cyclist and the motorcycle. Still furthermore, many of these prior art devices are expensive to attach, unsightly to be seen and unreliable during use.